Area with special development needs
An area with special development needs is an urban social hot spot in Germany . Many federal states have issued regulations on how these areas are to be determined; sometimes these are also classified in rank.
The background is a self-dynamic of the social development of urban areas: If there is a noticeable shift towards impoverishment in an area, many of the previous residents leave the area as far as they can afford it. This creates a downward spiral of impoverishment. In the extreme case, a ghetto develops that is avoided by forces outside the area (isolation) and thus has little chance of improvement.
In order to prevent this spiral, the municipalities classify urban areas with special development needs. In these areas, the social structure is then specifically promoted in order to avoid further slipping in living conditions. It is problematic that in some areas areas are only funded if they already have ghetto-like characteristics in the general perception of the population.
District types that are particularly prone to developing socially disadvantaged areas:
- Downtown or inner-city quarters
- Large housing estates including prefabricated housing estates
- Housing estates of the withdrawn armed forces
- Commercial, industrial, postal and railway wastelands
Criteria with which the special need for development is recognized:
- High unemployment
- Increase in low-income households and increasing number of welfare recipients
- Growing lack of prospects among young people due to growing youth unemployment and a lack of professional opportunities
- Increase in violence and crime
- Dominant urban grievances
Development goals aimed at in the affected areas:
- Improvement of housing conditions
- Creation and safeguarding of employment at local level
- Improvement of the social infrastructure, especially for young people
- Improvement of the range of needs-based education and training opportunities
- Measures to improve security in the neighborhood
- Living environment improvement
- Measures to protect the environment
- Improving local public transport
- Revitalization of the district culture and increasing the range of leisure activities
literature
- Hartmut Häussermann: The federal-state program "City districts with special development needs - the social city" . In: Handbuch Kommunale Sozialpolitik . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-92874-6 , p. 269-279 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-531-92874-6_20 .